QUOD VOTISENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE PROPOSED CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

To Our Beloved Sons Anthony Joseph Cardinal Gruscha, Archbishop of Vienna; George Cardinal Kopp, Bishop of Wroclaw, Leo Cardinal De Skrbensky, Archbishop of Prague; John Cardinal Puzyna, Bishop of Cracow; and the Other Venerable Brother Archbishops and Bishops of Austria.

Beloved Sons and Venerable Brothers, Greetings and the Apostolic Blessing.

With great joy you now announce that the object of the wishes of your predecessors, which has been worked on for many years, is speeding to its happy conclusion. For whatever is required for founding a Catholic University is all but at hand; it is your consensus that the finishing touches can now be applied to setting up this great Institution of learning. We have had to wait for it longer than We might have hoped, but its completion has come about at a proper and fitting time. Accordingly, We freely and with full approbation assent to your plans, which in themselves are commendable. We wish to point out explicitly in writing our great joy at this news, since We encourage holy sets of learning to be established and enlarged everywhere. Moreover, We declare this also to add an incentive to your faithful to hastenthe conclusion of so great an enterprise. As for the details, We confide them to you; We have no doubts of the generosity and approval of those for whose advantage the desired University will come into existence. As soon as the details that pertain to this Institution are ready, the Sacred Congregation of Studies should communicate them to us: for their task is to inform Us of these affairs and to use their mandated power of setting standards for Catholic Institutions of learning according to the norms of the Sacred Canons.

2. Meanwhile We testify to each one of You Our happy and benevolent sentiments, and We beseech divine favor on the work undertaken, and bestow the Apostolic blessing on all of you.

Given in Rome at St. Peter's, 30 April 1902, in the 25th year of OurPontificate.